Many times people need to coordinate themselves at a particular location at a certain time. This could be driving to pick up a friend or relative at the airport, processing an order and having the order ready for pickup, meeting a taxi at a reserved time, appearing on time for a speech following the introduction or any other scheduled meeting. Other times, instead of meeting at a specific time, multiple parties agree to a window of time or an approximate time in which they will meet.
However, it is often the case that at least one of parties is late, thereby causing inconvenience to those that are on time. It could also be an inefficient use of time when one party is on time, but another party arrives earlier than expected. Often frustration can result when one party has had to wait for the other. For example, a party may come home every day by a train. While the train is often on time, it is also sometimes early and other times late. The party's spouse has to pick the party up at the train station every day. When the train runs late, the spouse has to sit and wait, perhaps not knowing when the train will arrive. When the train is early, the spouse may not have arrived yet and the party must wait.
In the case of businesses, it is desirable to have a customer-specific order ready and waiting by the time the customer arrives to pick it up. This is especially useful when dealing with numerous customers in a short time span, when the queue is long, upon fulfilling orders that require considerable amounts of time to prepare or when dealing with perishable goods. For example, in a pizza business it is beneficial to both the customer and the business to provide a pizza that is neither cold nor late. In a services-oriented business, such as a doctor's office, it is desirable to know if the customer will be on time for the scheduled appointment and, if not, what time the customer might be there.
Sometimes parties agree to meet during a time window or an approximate time as opposed to a specific time, such as for cable installation or home deliveries. Often this can be a matter of hours. In such a case, the waiting party can spend a good part of the day simply waiting for the other to arrive. It would be beneficial to the waiting party to know with greater accuracy when the cable installer or delivery truck may arrive, or when they are close to arriving.
Known methods of dealing with the above problems are limited to scheduling an appointment and hoping that the parties will be on time. As shown above, however, this is often not the case.
Other known methods involve updating the scheduled time shortly before arriving. This is generally done by calling ahead to let the waiting party know if the arriving party is running early or late, and approximately when the arriving party will be there. Unfortunately, people often forget to call ahead or are unable to call ahead because a phone is not available. Other times, the waiting party may not be near a phone or their phone number is not available. Generally, it is simply inconvenient to do so.
Devices and methods are also known for tracking a party and automatically sending an alert to another party when the first party is not within a certain area. This is often seen in devices and methods for monitoring parolees or individuals under house arrest. However, the two parties are generally not meeting at a predetermined location, especially once the alert sounds. Nor can the device be manually operated by the parolee or arrestee to alert the other party as to where they are and when they might be arriving at a predetermined location. Furthermore, the parolee or individual under house arrest is usually not allowed to program the device to alert different parties, define a predetermined location, define the boundaries of the area, or include personalized messages.
Further methods and devices are known to periodically prompt a party to record a message regarding their location, thus providing another party with the last known location. However, the party could simply ignore this prompt or delay in recording the message only to later forget to record one. Moreover, the location information may be inaccurate due to human error and/or out of date. Such devices and methods do not automatically alert the other party as to the party's position and/or approximate time of arrival at a predetermined location. Instead, an alert is sent manually by way of a panic button.
Methods and devices are also known for notifying passengers of the status of a vehicle or aircraft including its position and approximate arrival times. Vehicle information can be accessed by devices such as telephones, pagers, computers, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, etc. However, this information is made available to the general public. Individual parties may not want everyone to know where they are and when they are arriving. Also, the information is accessed by a party as opposed to a system that is proactive and contacts the party individually. Furthermore, the status information is directed towards the vehicle and is not personalized to an individual party.
Thus there is a need for a method and apparatus that alerts a party when another party reaches a predetermined location. There is also a need for a device and apparatus that efficiently allows for the coordination of an activity at a party's destination.